What a hoot! Gayle‘s daughter Imogen loves owls, so for her birthday, Gayle created a super sweet and dreamy Owl Love Dessert Table. Macy adores owls too (actually, we all do!); I can picture her loving this, especially the adorable owl cakes and owl cake pops with heart shaped faces. This is great inspiration for Valentine’s Day too!

This bright and colorful Ladybug Birthday Party by Shannon is full of adorable ladybug treats and so many crafty DIY details… just check out those fabulous hanging paper plate “lanterns” for starters! ;)

If taking a trip to Sesame Street means getting to attend this cute and colorful Abby Cadabby and Elmo First Birthday Party by Adriana, then my bags are packed! Nothing could be cuter than this incredible birthday cake (besides the birthday girl herself, of course), which is simply decorated with fondant colored dots, but oh so perfect!

The color palette is spot on with soft shades of pink, purple, red and teal. I’m loving all the polkadot details from the mini suitcase to the bubble wraps. No party is complete without cake pops and this party is no exception. How cute are they? I just have one question for mom. . . how many little ones did you invite to this fabulous birthday bash? Check out that huge table full of incredible party favors. . .wow! ;)

Kate of And Everything Sweet did a truly MAGICAL job on this entire Disney Carnival Birthday Party for her daughter, Olivia, but can you believe the incredible 7 TIER topsy turvy Mickey and Friends Cake that she made? WOW! If you haven’t already guessed, Kate is a cake designer by trade… and a very talented one at that. Check out all the character-inspired detail in the image above… it’s too fantastic to eat!

More Disney Carnival Party Highlights:

– Each letter in the Olivia’s name all decked out like a Disney character
– Super clever Minnie Mouse wreath & place settings
– Adorable Goofy, Minnie, Mickey and Donald Cake Pops
– Disney-inspired carnival games like “Mickey’s Ring Toss”
– Game prizes like bubbles and frisbees, customized with matching printables

Read on for lots more polka dot covered party photos (á la Minnie Mouse!), as well as party details from Kate…

These paper rose adorned chalkboard horses are super cute and easy decorations that can be used everywhere from the table centerpiece to the buffet to the “Watering Hole” (i.e. “party drink station”).

SUPPLIES:

You’ll need chalkboard paint, toy horses, paper roses, satin ribbon, and glue dots. (I found everything at Michaels.) You can also use regular black paint, but I love the slightly rustic feel that the chalkboard paint gives. Click here for the DIY tutorial on how to make the red paper roses.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Give each toy horse 2 coats of paint & let dry. Cut a short piece of red satin ribbon and angle the edges. Use a pop up or 3D glue dot to attach the ribbon to the horse, then 2 more glue dots to attach the 2 paper roses on top, positioning them so that one rose is visible from each side. Done! Super easy and very Derby party appropriate!

As the mom of a toddler that sings the popular nursery rhyme all the time, this sweet party feels especially near and dear right now, but I’m pretty sure that ANYONE can appreciate the major cuteness factor of this adorable Mary Had a Little Lamb birthday party!

In addition to the happy color palette and sweet “little lamb” birthday cake, I’m loving all the homespun details in this playful party by Kristen of Kristen Duke Photography. Don’t miss the handmade felt banners and zig zag streamers, as well as the matching birthday girl that dress Kristen made for her daughter!

Talk about “high style”! Is this bright yellow and champagne Kentucky Derby Party fundraiser fantastic or what? I am seriously in LOVE with the mason jar “chandelier” over the buffet. And speaking of mason jars, they also look super cute embellished with festive drink tags, twine, and yellow stripey straws for the Mint Juleps served at the “Watering Hole”.

This “A Night at the Derby” celebration was actually a Boys & Girls Club Fundraiser designed by Meredith of MJ Paperie, but there are tons of super stylish ideas that could easily translate to any home Kentucky Derby party and beyond…from the clever lattice table backdrop embellished with Spanish moss for Southern charm – to some seriously gorgeous yellow floral arrangements! A Derby-inspired table of themed desserts included everything from adorable hat and bow sugar cookies and cupcakes to “Big Brown’s Banana Pudding Shooters”…so clever!

Why siesta when you can FIESTA! Hola amigos, it’s Alejandra Morin from The Marshmallow Studio, where we create custom marshmallow pops and designs. I’m thrilled to be here to share my very first post as a new guest contributor on HWTM. Today I’m sharing an easy, fun new way to decorate your Cinco de Mayo cupcakes – with marshmallows!

MARSHMALLOW SOMBERORS AND SARAPES

Ending a day full of salty margaritas and chips & salsa with a sweet dessert is a must. Delight your family and friends with these fluffy marshmallow sombrero and sarape toppers on your cupcakes which are sure to make them want to get up and do the Mexican hat dance in joy!

The edible “tea cups” made of big marshmallows with candy loop handles are such a clever addition to the tea party menu! Also loving the vintage flag bunting backdrop, “drink me” bottles embellished with doilies, and topsy turvy cake that Jaqui topped with sparkly fondant hearts. Read on for more Mad Hatter tea party pics + creative details…

I’m so excited to share this Modern Beach Inspired Wedding from Brian Worley and Jaime Geffen at YourBASH!… which also includes menu and place card designs by yours truly. :)

Dubbed “Geometric POP” by Brian, this coral, aqua, and lime green wedding theme is just as gorgeous and stylish as it is vibrant and FUN! We used raffia to tie the place cards to bottles of Sparkling Grapefruit IZZE for another playful touch.

This was just one of several inspirational wedding themes that YourBASH! created for a spectacular event at Hotel del Coronado, which is a gorgeous resort just outside of San Diego. YourBASH! actually designed and set up EIGHT different wedding themes in just 2 short days for this cocktail party/photo shoot, and event guests were treated to an amazing night of mixing & mingling throughout 8 creative spaces, while enjoying coordinating food and drinks at each one. Not a bad way to spend an evening, right? ;)

Each theme that Brian styled was unique and utilized different sets of vendors and spaces throughout the hotel – so the logistics of this day were insane. Kudos to Jaime for handling mass coordination – and nonstop phone calls – with this endeavor! Everything came together beautifully though, and it was such a fun night! So here we go with more pics of “Geometric Pop”, which was set up on the beautiful beach-front Windsor Lawn space at Hotel del:

Sports themes are always popular for birthday parties, but this particular sports themed first birthday has a clever twist… You know those big foam “#1” hands that you always see at sporting events? Well, they also look just like what toddlers do when they proudly announce “I’m ONE!”. So… Kate (mom of the birthday boy) decided that this novelty item was the perfect theme inspiration for her little sports fanatic’s big celebration of one!

In addition to the playful ball game inspired menu, I love that each table at this party was equipped with “decorate it yourself” #1 hands and art supplies!

Get ready for a magical underwater world of sparkly mermaids, giant bubbles, and ocean-inspired desserts!

Christina from Dolce Designs Studio transformed her living room into a fabulous underwater oasis for her daughter’s Under the Sea birthday party with a “Princess Mermaid” twist! Shimmery fabrics and ocean blue ribbons covered the walls, while a cool “Seahorse Guard Gate” held watch over playful themed desserts like smiling starfish cookies, ocean wave cake pops, and an amazing, sugar-coral-topped Under the Sea cake. A darling mermaid princess invitation set the tone for this sparkly, bubbly birthday celebration…and it looks like the real “mermaid princess” and her friends had an absolute blast!

Being a creative girl at heart, I always love seeing art themed parties come through the inbox – and this beautiful version that Stephanie from Couture Parties whipped up for her daughter has a fun twist: PASTELS!

Art parties usually come to life in bold, bright colors, but the pastel palette that Stephanie used here has such a lovely vibe to it that feels perfectly fitting for a young girl. The paint can birthday name garland has got to be one of my favorite details, not to mention the painter’s palette cookies, bento box lunches, and “art kits” (containing paint brushes, aprons, and canvases) that sat at each place setting, all tied up with a pretty satin bow. I’m also loving the stylish, retro-mod chair top covers that Stephanie sewed the night before the party (!) to add another big pop of color to the kraft-paper covered kids table.

Read on for more pretty pastel art birthday party pictures + creative details… and a video! (more…)

Update: Meleka was kind enough to send over a copy of her {amazing} quiz! Download it here!

*****

Inspired by the joy of classic children’s books, Meleka of MMJ Events created a whole baby shower centered around a collection of everyone’s childhood favorites.

All the inspiration for the food, drinks, and desserts were taken from each children’s classic book ranging from Milk and Cookies (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie), Green Deviled Eggs(Green Eggs and Ham), Meatballs (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), Pink Lemonade (Pinkalicious), Moon Pies (Goodnight Moon), just to name a few. Each table was cleverly decked out with it’s own book theme. I’m loving the “Corduroy” table which happens to be one of my favorite children’s books. As a gift, the guests were encouraged to bring their favorite childhood book to share with the mother-to-be and in lieu of a card to write an inscription in the book to both mother and baby.

I’m not sure if it’s just me or if most of the creative/blogging world is like this, but I always seem to get to my own stuff last, because there’s always something else that needs priority attention: client work, party submissions from others, inbox, toddler, baby, husband, life in general… you get the picture. :)

Anyways, here is one such example: the dessert station from the HWTM Wonderlandia event we hosted last August has been on my editiorial calendar since… last August. *wince* I literally have been drag-and-dropping it on down the Google calendar straight through from last summer to April 2012. Yikes! I did upload the dessert table album after the event, but with all the amazing treats from some seriously talented vendors – not to mention lots of sparkle and a bright pink & metallic gold winged pig – I’m thinking this one deserves its own post to highlight all the fun details. So, the Google-calendar-dragging stops today – hooray! At least for this ONE item. ;) Here we go:

This next party feature seriously makes me HAPPY just looking at it! :) And with Cinco de Mayo coming up soon, the timing of this fabulous, Skippyjon Jones inspired “FOUResta” 4th birthday party by Brittany of GreyGrey Designs couldn’t be better… I’m definitely seeing lots of taco shell garlands being created in the near future!

I somehow wasn’t familiar with Skippyjon Jones before laying eyes on Greyson’s birthday party, but one look at these pics and some quick research on what this little guy is all about, and I’ve already fallen in love! A “Siamese kittenboy that takes on the superhero persona of the great Spanish sword fighter Skippito” and invites readers along for zany, wild adventures? Um… yes, please!

And speaking of adventure and imagination, this entire fiesta is overflowing with it – from the “giant pinata” inspired taco bar backdrop to the CUTEST Skippyjon themed lollipops, paper details, cupcake toppers, and more. Read on for lots more COLORFUL party pics + creative details…

Oh. My. GOODNESS! I am so in love with all the charming & crafty details of this shabby chic style Princess and the Pea Birthday Party by Michelle of Maddycakes Muse!

In keeping true to the classic fairytale, Michelle created an ADORABLE “bed table” for all the little princesses to dine at – complete with pea-adorned utensils and pea-filled flower centerpieces! She also created the cutest DIY plates using a darling design from Paper and Pigtails + paint & glass Dollar Tree plates, as well as sweet little pink wooden favor boxes filled with edible glitter truffle “peas”.

Tonya Coleman here from Soireé Event Design – and I’m back with another “Budget Chic” guest post where I share with you my tips on how you can have a fabulous high-end looking table for less! And there’s an added bonus this time – I’m also giving away a $100 Gift Card to Target! See details on how to enter below.

Today’s post is all about the ongoing trend…sweets tables! What began as a trend has now become more of a staple at most events. If you’ve done them yourself before, you probably know the cost of sweets tables can totally bust your budget…especially when you’re matching the colors of your sweets to your event colors.

THE LOOK FOR LESS

Here I designed two different sweets tables at two different price points: high end and “budget chic”. For the high end designer table, I included treats by some of the most sought-after sweets designers.

For my “Budget Chic” table, I challenged myself to see if I could design a high-end looking, color-coordinated sweets table for less by purchasing all of the items from my favorite store: Target… affectionately known as “Targét!” (more…)

Everything from the napkin rings to the sweets to the darling birthday girl was adorned in jewels and sparkly metallics for this fabulous Arabian Nights / Princess Jasmine birthday party!

Angela of Oh, Sugar! Events and Ryam of The Inspired Mama did such a great job playing creative “genies” and bringing this festive Aladdin-inspired theme to life for Ryam’s daughter. Each of the “royal birthday treats” was not only beautiful to look at (check out those amazing 3″ tall royal icing henna toppers!) – but they were also all given clever names like “Make a Wish Macarons”, “Royal Jewel Brownie Bites”, and “Ali A-Backlava”. There are tons of magical details to share in this one, so I’m going to let the pictures do the talking first… followed by Angela, who describes all the thought that went into this celebration beautifully below. So hold onto those magic carpets… and here we go!

This beautiful & pink-a-licious Ribbons & Ruffles Baby Shower for desserts guru Melody Brandon is every bit as SWEET as you’d expect it to be! And with the crew of talented ladies (see vendor credits below) that helped bring this girlie celebration to life for the new momma, how could it not be, right?!

Ribbons and Ruffles Baby Shower Highlights

A mix of soft and bright pinks were used throughout every detail of the party – and ribbons and ruffles adorned everything from the gorgeous invitations and flower arrangements to a thoughtful handmade “Sweet Wishes” mobile. In addition to the fabulous fabric ruffled backdrops behind the drink and dessert stations, one of my favorite details has got to be the “Make a Headband for Baby Blake” activity. Guests were treated to a sparkly, crafty buffet of sequins, feathers, and glittery bows… not to mention one of the cutest “models” (courtesy of Carissa) ever to don a sequin-feather headband! Congrats to Melody on the arrival of her sweet Baby Blake, and special thanks to Carlie from Gabriel Ryan Photographers for sharing all the beautiful photos that she captured with us…

We’re loving the playful, stylish vibe of this fun Yellow Chevron Bridal Shower that Emily and Jeanna created for their cousin Amanda! With the help of some talented Etsy vendors – or ” true crafty’s” as Jeanna calls them – the girls pulled together a wonderfully inviting celebration filled with custom touches designed especially for Amanda – including personalized banners, cocktail napkins, a monogrammed chevron tray, and more! Even the M&Ms featured pictures of the happy couple and their wedding date.

In addition to the fabulous monogrammed pillow handmade by Jeanna’s mother, one of my favorite details has got to be the blueberry lemonade cocktails served in mason jars and garnished with adorable “She said yes!” straws. CHEERS!

Read on for lots more festive chevron party photos + creative details…. (more…)

One of these years I’m determined to make it to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby! It’s quite the trek from San Diego to Louisville though, so in the meantime I will happily continue celebrating the Derby at home with friends & family. :) And along those lines, I’m excited to bring you the brand new Taste of Derby theme that I’ve been busy with lately… which includes tons of creative Kentucky Derby party ideas + FREE party printables and easy Derby-inspired recipes!

My goal for this new Kentucky Derby theme was to create a Vintage-Modern look that felt both classy and casual/fun at the same time – just like the Derby itself. The vibrant red, green, and blue colors utilized here are common racing silks colors and are also reflective of the beautiful 14 Hands wine labels (the official Taste of Derby wine partner).

I relied on entertaining basics (white plates, white serveware, neutral linens), DIY projects like rolled paper roses, and simple food styling ideas to bring this theme to life, and designed several printable paper details featuring horses, jockeys, and racing silks patterns. (The printables will be featured in a separate post this afternoon since this post is already getting long!)

We hope you’ll be able to use some of these ideas and printables to make your Derby Day celebrations with friends extra festive this year! Read on for more “Taste of Derby” sneak peeks + a link to the full album & party details… (more…)

Ready to get all tangled up in birthday FUN? Good… because this gorgeous Tangled inspired birthday party that Laila of Two Tiny Loves created for her daughter is exactly that – colorful, whimsical, and filled with tons of beautiful & creative movie-inspired details!

Some of my favorite elements include the clever layered bricks “tower” that was used to display the food, the fabulous DIY yarn ball chandelier hanging from the top of the tent, and the creative yarn “Rapunzel braids” that adorned the brick tower AND each of the favors. Also loving the “modern princess” vibe of the paper printables that Laila designed herself, as well as the pretty handmade birthday hats and princess wands. And of course there’s the amazing princess tower cake that definitely deserves a shout out – I think it would be more properly described as an “edible work of art”! Check this out:

Remember this adorable Aqua & Lace Party from our Party of 5 Post a couple weeks back? Well Anastasia also created a DIY Tutorial on how to make her beautiful and super budget-friendly backdrop! Can you believe it was created from rolls of office supply receipt paper? Pretty clever, right! Here’s what she says:

“For my 4 year old girls birthday party this year I wanted to do something girly and elegant. I had an idea to use ribbons of lace as the backdrop to the dessert buffet, however I couldn’t justify spending that much on the backdrop. I started to think what I could use as an alternative and realized receipt paper is perfect- it’s thin, it’s paper, and it’s cheap. I found a Martha Stewart punch at Joann Fabrics called Flower Bed. It is very much like an eyelet border and eyelet kinda looks like lace right? Either way it turned out amazing!”

Event stylist & paperie designer Loralee Lewis definitely has a knack for bringing magical stories to life in {truly amazing!} party form, and this PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN birthday party that she created for her son is another shining example. In the party details below, Loralee talks about the important role that adventure and heroism plays in a young boy’s life, and how – with this party – she “…wanted [Ethan] to be transported into a land of adventure where he and his little friends couldn’t be anything but five year old heroes.” Mission accomplished!

From rummaging through Davy Jones’ locker for playful pirate disguises to hunting for buried treasure and tossing water balloon “canon balls”, this birthday celebration has ADVENTURE written all over it (in ye ole blackletter fonts, of course!). Ready to jump on board the recap? Here we go!

At Hostess with the Mostess®, creativity is always the life of the party! Here, you'll find stylish entertaining ideas & resources for everyone from the first-time hostess to the seasoned pro. We share imaginative events, DIY tutorials, recipes products, and a passion for great design that also makes people happy. :)